Pharmaceutically active drugs can exist in different solid forms. For example, a drug may exist in different crystalline forms which have different physical and chemical properties. Different physical properties can cause different crystalline forms of the same drug to have largely different processing and storage performance. Such physical properties include, for example, thermodynamic stability, crystal morphology [form, shape, structure, particle size, particle size distribution, degree of crystallinity, color], ripple behavior, flowability, density, bulk density, powder density, apparent density, vibrated density, depletability, emptyability, hardness, deformability, grindability, compressability, compactability, brittleness, elasticity, caloric properties [particularly melting point], solubility [particularly equilibrium solubility, pH dependence of solubility], dissolution [particularly dissolution rate, intrinsic dissolution rate], reconstitutability, hygroscopicity, tackiness, adhesiveness, tendency to electrostatic charging, and the like.
In addition, different chemical properties can cause different crystalline forms of the same drug to have largely different performance properties. For example, a crystalline form having a low hygroscopicity (relative to other crystalline forms) can have superior chemical stability and longer shelf-life stability (cf. R. Hilfiker, Polymorphism, 2006 Wiley VCH, pp 235-242). Further, different stereoisomers of one compound can form different crystalline forms. In some cases this difference can be exploited to allow separation of the stereoisomers from one another.
One particular compound that is of great interest for use in the treatment of pain such as acute, visceral, neuropathic, cancer and chronic pain is (1r,4r)-6′-fluoro-N,N-dimethyl-4-phenyl-4′,9′-dihydro-3′H-spiro[cyclohexane-1,1′-pyrano[3,4b]indol]-4-amine as depicted below in formula (I) (in the following also referred to as (1r,4r)-1)

The solid forms of (1r,4r)-6′-fluoro-N,N-dimethyl-4-phenyl-4′,9′-dihydro-3′H-spiro[cyclohexane-1,1′-pyrano[3,4b]indol]-4-amine that are known so far are not satisfactory in every respect and there is a demand for advantageous solid forms.